"They do say that Shakespeare came to Hampton Court on Midsummer's Eve to see the magical statues come to life, but because the event is a very private affair, he did not see the magic, and so instead wrote Midsummer Night's Dream."

Summer visitors to the Park watch a band of young actors perform the Shakespeare play 'Midsummer Night's Dream', a comedy telling how the Queen of the Fairies fell in love with a donkey.  Humphrey the Lord of the Hampton deer and Head of the Herd finds the play absolutely ridiculous.  He stamps his hoof during the performance and bellows loudly, "The queen of the fairies would never fall in love with an old donkey, not when the park is so full of such handsome deer with such magnificent crowns of horns."

Hector's midsummer madness Jo Rutherford 2010